Multiple Sclerosis Euphemisms

As many a child learns a euphemistic name for their “private parts,” several – if not all – of us have used little nicknames for parts or our life with MS.

I was listening to a short interview on the radio with a woman who has written a book about her experience after her husband’s death. It was her use and explanation of several euphemisms around dying, death and grieving. As grief and the grieving of loss is part of our regular MS exercise routine, I thought we’d give it a go here on the Life With MS Blog.

We use non-scientific names and tags for events for the same reason we teach children alternatives for their bits; it’s less frightening.

As you may recall, I’ll often refer to an MS attack as a “thing”. I’m not afraid of an attack (or my disease… on most days) but “thing” is something that I can talk about without other people being afraid. “Spot” or “Plaque” sound soooooo much better than “Lesion” and the list goes on.

An old stand-by that has lost favor in the past years is “good day, bad day”. I think we got tired of people saying that they had “bad days” too as if they had any idea what ours were like. I suppose that others have gone the way of the dodo as well.

Some of these names will be for symptoms; others will represent the disease activity itself. I look forward to reading your thoughts.

So, as we head into the weekend, I thought we’d share some of the less-than-clinical monikers we used for the different parts of MS. No one is going to judge you for your use of such things. Quite the contrary, I expect that many of your will be admired and your nicknames adopted.

So, lift those “Frankenstein arms”, place those “dodgy fingers” on the keys and stamp out your epithet before that “bumble bee but” makes it hard to sit in your chair.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Trevis Gleason

Trevis L. Gleason is a food journalist and published author, an award-winning chef and culinary instructor who has taught at institutions such as Cornell University, New England Culinary Institute and...read more